Lamentations 3:42 — Word Study
WLCנַ֤חְנוּ פָשַׁ֙עְנוּ֙ וּמָרִ֔ינוּ אַתָּ֖ה לֹ֥א סָלָֽחְתָּ׃ ס
BSA◂Wenachnûw [as a group of people including the speaker] have sinnedpâshaʻ■ [transgressed, broken away from authority] and rebelledmârâh■ [resisted, disobeyed] ◂Youʼattâh [addressing God directly] have notlôʼ [indicating absence or negation] forgivençâlach■ [pardon, shown mercy, to forgive and be merciful]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| נַ֤חְנוּ | we | Pronoun |
| פָשַׁ֙עְנוּ֙ | we have transgressed | Verb, Qal, perfect first person common plural |
| וּמָרִ֔ינוּ | and we have rebelled | Conjunction, verb qal perfect first person common plural |
| אַתָּ֖ה | you | Pronoun |
| לֹ֥א | not | Particle |
| סָלָֽחְתָּ׃ ס | you have forgiven | Verb, Qal, perfect second person masculine singular |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | “We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.” |
| KJV | We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. |
| ASV | We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned. |
| YLT | We — we have transgressed and rebelled, Thou — Thou hast not forgiven. |
| WEB | “We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned. |
| BBE | We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness. |
The translations agree on the essential meaning of the verse.
The sentence is structured around a confession of sin, with a direct address to God highlighting the plea for mercy.
7 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them ›
clause
subjectנַחְנוּ
verbפָּשַׁע
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Lamentations 3:42
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Lament of the Peoplegenerated
Lamentations 3:42 captures a moment of collective confession from the people, where they recognize their sins and rebellion against God. This verse is situated within a larger context of lament, where the people express their sorrow and plea for mercy amidst their suffering. It highlights the depth of their unfaithfulness and the stark reality of their relationship with God, as seen in surrounding verses that detail their anguish and God's seeming absence.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lamentations 1:18 | The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. Listen, all you people; look upon my suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into captivity. |
| 2 | Lamentations 5:16 | The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! |
| 3 | Nehemiah 9:26 | But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies. |
| 4 | Job 33:27–28 | Then he sings before men with these words: ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right; yet I did not get what I deserved. |
| 5 | Jeremiah 3:13 | Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 11 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — פָשַׁ֙עְנוּ֙, fa.Sha'.nugenerated
The verb פָשַׁע (pasha`) means to transgress or rebel, indicating a conscious act of breaking away from authority. This word is significant as it conveys the intentional nature of their disobedience, emphasizing a relational breach with God.
In this verse, the first-person plural form פָשַׁ֙עְנוּ֙ (fa.Sha'.nu) indicates that the entire community acknowledges their collective wrongdoing. The parsing as a perfect verb shows that this transgression is a completed action, reinforcing the gravity of their rebellion.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, so the BSB is the wording every comparison below is made against.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The verse consists of two main clauses connected by a conjunction: נַ֤חְנוּ פָשַׁ֙עְנוּ֙ and וּמָרִ֔ינוּ — we have sinned and we have rebelled, followed by the addressing of God: אַתָּ֖ה לֹ֥א סָלָֽחְתָּ — You have not forgiven.
The structure highlights the collective confession of sin followed by a direct appeal to God, emphasizing their recognition of wrongdoing and the absence of forgiveness.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
In the Septuagint, the Hebrew verb פָשַׁע is translated as ἡμαρτήσαμεν — we have sinned. This choice reflects a direct connection to the concept of sinfulness, aligning with the overall theme of lament in this passage.
The use of ἠσεβήσαμεν for וּמָרִ֔ינוּ indicates a broader interpretation of rebellion, suggesting a deep-seated unfaithfulness towards God.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Lamentations 3:42 shows the people confessing their sins and rebellion against God, admitting that He has not forgiven them. This moment of lament highlights their collective acknowledgment of wrongdoing and the consequences of their actions.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
To transgress means to break away from God's authority, which involves intentional disobedience and rebellion.
They recognize their unfaithfulness and the need for God's mercy, expressing sorrow for their actions.
It highlights the seriousness of their rebellion and the consequences of their actions, emphasizing their need for divine mercy.
It reflects the deep sorrow and recognition of sin that permeates the book, showcasing the people's struggle and longing for restoration.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- In what ways can I recognize my own shortcomings and seek forgiveness?
- How can acknowledging our collective sins lead to healing within a community?
- What does it mean to rebel against authority in my own life?
- How can I foster a deeper understanding of God's mercy and forgiveness?
Commentators on this verse — 7 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Lamentations 3:42 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleWe have transgressed, and have rebelled,.... Here begins the prayer, the sense of which is directed to, though the words are not dictated; and it begins with confession of sin, as prayer should,
Read John Gill on Lamentations 3 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryLet us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD. Let us - Jeremiah and his fellow-countrymen in their calamity.
Read Robert Jamieson on Lamentations 3 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy BibleThe prophet doth not dictate words, but sense to them, teaching them the matter of their prayer; first, by way of confession. Sin is called a transgression, because it is going aside from the way of God’ s precepts; it is called rebellion, because it is an act contrary to that allegiance and duty which we owe unto God, and the covenant we have made with him. By pardoning here is meant the discharge of the guilty persons from the temporal punishment due for sin (as it is often taken in Scripture); so it signifies, thou hast plagued us according to the just desert of our sins.
Read Matthew Poole on Lamentations 3 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsLamentations 3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.Ver. 42. We have transgressed and have rebelled.] We have committed evil and omitted good, and failed in the manner, and are therefore justly punished. Let God hear such words fall from our mouths, set to work by our hearts, and then we may have anything.
Read John Trapp on Lamentations 3 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(42) We have transgressed . . .—The verses that follow (Lamentations 3;42-47) give the prayer which answers to the call of Lam 3:41. Both pronouns are emphatic: The suppliant has sinned and God has not yet pardoned, in the sense of ceasing to punish.
Read Charles John Ellicott on Lamentations 3 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges42. We … thou] The pronouns are emphatic in the original. Thou and we have been at variance. thou … pardoned] Observe how this clause forms a connecting link with the next group; similarly “mine eye” in Lamentations 3:48.
Read Cambridge on Lamentations 3 →Daniel Denison Whedon1808–1885Whedon's Commentary on the Bible42. Thou hast not pardoned — As in the preceding triplet, so here, we may have a transition to the section immediately following.
Read Daniel Denison Whedon on Lamentations 3 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
“We have transgressed and have rebelled. You have not pardoned.
“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”
“We have blatantly rebelled; you have not forgiven.”
Tyndale line
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned.
We have transgressed and have rebelled; thou hast not pardoned.
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
We haue sinned, and haue rebelled, therefore thou hast not spared.
Strictly literal
We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
We — we have transgressed and rebelled, Thou — Thou hast not forgiven.
We have transgressed and been rebellious, || You have not forgiven.
We have indeed transgressed and rebelled: thou hast truly not pardoned.
“We have transgressed and rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
From the Latin
Nun. We have done wickedly, and provoked thee to wrath: therefore thou art inexorable.
Simplified
“We are the ones who sinned; we are the ones who rebelled; and you haven't forgiven us!”
We have done wrong and gone against your law; we have not had your forgiveness.
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text reads, "We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven." The Septuagint closely matches this, with five of the six words corresponding to those in the Masoretic Text, though it presents them in a different order and structure. There are no significant differences in meaning between these texts for this verse.
נַ֤חְנוּ פָשַׁ֙עְנוּ֙ וּמָרִ֔ינוּ אַתָּ֖ה לֹ֥א סָלָֽחְתָּ׃ ס
5 of the 6 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Lamentations 3:42
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
נַ֫חְנוּ (nachnuw) means 'we' and is the first-person plural pronoun in Hebrew. It is an alternate spelling of אֲנַ֫חְנוּ (anachnu), which also means 'we.' The entries consistently identify it as a pronoun without significant variation in interpretation.
נַ֫חְנוּ, נָ֑חְנוּ pron. 1pl. we
base
H5168 נַ֫חְנוּ, נָ֑חְנוּ we
5168 nachnuw nakh-noo'
for 587; we:--we.
see HEBREW for 0587
נַ֫חְנוּ (nach.nu) — we.
we
Another spelling of a.nach.nu (אֲנַ֫חְנוּ "we" H0587)
§ 1) we
Pron — PronounHPp1bp
פָּשַׁע (pasha`) means to rebel or transgress, indicating a break from authority. It encompasses actions like revolt and apostasy, and can also refer to being offended in a relational context. The term appears in various forms, including Qal and Niphal, suggesting both active rebellion and passive offense.
פָּשַׁע vb. rebel, transgress
Qal
rebel, revolt, of nations
transgress against
Niph. a brother (who has been) offended
base
H6586 פָּשַׁע rebel, transgress
6586 pasha` paw-shah'
a primitive root (identical with 6585 through the idea of
expansion); to break away (from just authority), i.e.
trespass, apostatize, quarrel:--offend, rebel, revolt,
transgress(-ion, -or).
see HEBREW for 06585
פָּשַׁע (pa.sah) — to transgress.
1) to rebel, transgress, revolt
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to rebel, revolt
1a2) to transgress
1b) (Niphal) to be rebelled against
V-Qal-Perf-1cp — Verb · Qal · perfect first person common pluralHVqp1cp
מָרָה (marah) is a Hebrew verb meaning to be contentious or rebellious. It encompasses actions of disobedience, particularly towards authority figures like parents or God. The entries indicate that it can also imply causing bitterness or provoking resistance. The word appears in various forms, such as Qal and Hiphil, which denote different aspects of rebellion and disobedience.
מָרָה vb. be contentious, refractory, rebellious
Qal be disobedient, rebellious
Hiph. shew disobedience, rebelliousness
base
H4784 מָרָה be contentious, refractory, rebellious
4784 marah maw-raw'
a primitive root; to be (causatively, make) bitter (or
unpleasant); (figuratively) to rebel (or resist; causatively,
to provoke):--bitter, change, be disobedient, disobey,
grievously, provocation, provoke(-ing), (be) rebel
(against, -lious).
מָרָה (ma.rah) — to rebel.
1) to be contentious, be rebellious, be refractory, be disobedient towards, be rebellious against
1a) (Qal) to be disobedient, be rebellious
1a1) towards father
1a2) towards God
1b) (Hiphil) to show rebelliousness, show disobedience, disobey
Conj | V-Qal-Perf-1cp — Conjunction · verb qal perfect first person common pluralHC/Vqp1cp
אַתָּ֫ה (attah) is a second-person pronoun in Hebrew, used to address someone directly. It has masculine and feminine forms: אַתָּה for singular masculine, אַתְּ for singular feminine, אַתֶּם for plural masculine, and אַתֵּן for plural feminine. The entries indicate variations in form and usage, reflecting the pronoun's grammatical complexity.
אַתָּ֫ה, אָ֑תָּה pron. 2 s. m. thou
base
אתי, i.e. אתִּי, the older & more original form of אַתְּ thou (fem.)
base
אַתְּ, אָ֑תְּ pron. 2 s. f. thou (fem.)
base
אַתֶּם pron. 2 m. pl. you (masc.)
base
אַתֵּן pron. 2 f. pl. you (fem.)
base
H859a אַתָּ֫ה, אָ֑תָּה pron. 2 s. m. thou H859b אתי, i.e. אתִּי, the older & more original form of אַתְּ thou (fem.) H859c אַתְּ, אָ֑תְּ pron. 2 s. f. thou (fem.) H859d אַתֶּם pron. 2 m. pl. you (masc.) H859e אַתֵּן pron. 2 f. pl. you (fem.)
859 'attah at-taw'
or (shortened); aatta {at-taw'}; or wath {ath}; feminine
(irregular) sometimes nattiy {at-tee'}; plural masculine attem
{at- tem'}; feminine atten {at-ten'}; or oattenah
{at-tay'naw}; or fattennah {at-tane'-naw}; a primitive pronoun
of the second person; thou and thee, or (plural) ye and
you:--thee, thou, ye, you.
אַתָּ֫ה (at.tah) — you(m.s.).
you (second pers. sing. masc.)
אתִּי (ti) — you(f.s.).
you (second pers. sing. fem.)
A grammatical form of at.tah (אַתָּ֫ה "you(m.s.)" H0859A)
אַתְּ (at.te) — you(f.s.).
you (second pers. sing. fem.)
A grammatical form of at.tah (אַתָּ֫ה "you(m.s.)" H0859A)
אַתֶּם (at.tem) — you(m.p.).
you (second pers. pl. masc.)
Aramaic equivalent: an.tun (אַנְתּוּן "you" H0608)
אַתֵּן (at.ten) — you(f.p.).
you (second pers. pl. fem.)
A grammatical form of at.tah (אַתָּ֫ה "you(m.s.)" H0859A)
Pron — PronounHPp2ms
לֹא (lo') is a Hebrew word meaning 'not' or 'no.' It serves as a simple negation and can imply absence or prohibition. The word can also be used in various contexts, often combined with other particles for emphasis or clarification. Its Aramaic equivalent is לָא (la), which also means 'not.'
לֹא or לוֹא adv. not
base
H3808 לֹא or לוֹא not
3808 lo' lo
or lowi {lo}; or loh (Deut. 3:11) {lo}; a primitive particle;
not (the simple or abs. negation); by implication, no; often
used with other particles (as follows):--X before, + or else,
ere, + except, ig(-norant), much, less, nay, neither, never,
no((-ne), -r, (-thing)), (X as though...,(can-), for) not (out
of), of nought, otherwise, out of, + surely, + as truly as, +
of a truth, + verily, for want, + whether, without.
לֹא (lo) — not.
1) not, no
1a) not (with verb-absolute prohibition)
1b) not (with modifier-negation)
1c) nothing (subst)
1d) without (with particle)
1e) before (of time)
Aramaic equivalent: la (לָא "not" H3809)
Part — ParticleHTn
סָלַח (sa.lach) is a Hebrew verb meaning to forgive or pardon. It is a primitive root with forms in both the Qal and Niphal stems, indicating the act of forgiving and the state of being forgiven, respectively. The term appears in contexts related to forgiveness, including legal or ritual settings.
[סָלַח] vb. forgive, pardon
Qal forgive, pardon
Niph. term.techn. in code of P, it shall be forgiven him
base
H5545 סָלַח forgive, pardon
5545 calach saw-lakh'
a primitive root; to forgive:--forgive, pardon, spare.
סָלַח (sa.lach) — to forgive.
1) to forgive, pardon
1a) (Qal) to forgive, pardon
1b) (Niphal) to be forgiven
V-Qal-Perf-2ms — Verb · Qal · perfect second person masculine singularHVqp2ms